Stocksy Celebrates One Year Anniversary Announcing Profitable Growth And Appointment Of New CEO And CTO

VICTORIA, British Columbia, March 26, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Stocksy United, a photo licensing coop, celebrated its one year anniversary today by announcing impressive growth, profitability and the appointment of a new CEO, Brianna Wettlaufer and CTO, Richard Brown.

With its launch Stocksy created the "authentic movement" in the world of stock photography providing a highly curated online marketplace owned collectively by its photographer members who are paid one of the highest royalties in the business as well as sharing in the cooperative's total profits in the form of year-end dividends.

After only one year Stocksy and its co-op members have achieved profitability with this innovative new business model. With a growing co-op membership estimated to reach 1,000 this year, Stocksy boasts some of the industry's best photographers, in addition to up-and-coming tastemakers from social media.

A founder and former vice president at iStockphoto, Stocksy's new CEO Brianna Wettlaufer, brings over 10 years of leadership and innovation to her role. Brianna led iStockphoto in its evolution of an industry leading ingestion methodology for onboarding photographers and fostering their craft. She was also responsible for the community outreach, creative research, events and mentor programs that paved the way for iStock's growth and eventual acquisition by Getty Images. "Stocksy is leading the way for photographers by bringing real people, in real places, doing real things, to designers everywhere," said Brianna Wettlaufer, "I look forward to continuing to leverage our unparalleled curated aesthetic, fair and ethical business practices, simplified pricing structure for buyers and our simple, elegant, easy to use website that saves time for buyers."

As part of this change, Stocksy announced former CEO, Bruce Livingstone has moved to the position of Chairman of the Board where he will continue to provide strategic guidance for Stocksy's explosive growth.

"Ms. Wettlaufer invented the authentic category," said Bruce Livingstone, Stocksy's new Chairman, "A gifted creative director, exceptional curator, tech savvy, with strong leadership skills; this kind of talent doesn't come along very often. She will be a rock star CEO."

Richard Brown brings close to 15 years of experience managing large teams of IT professionals to his new role. "I'm excited for the opportunity to continue to push the technical boundaries in the stock photography space and to help shape a tool that allows both buyers and sellers to get what they need as quickly as possible. With our strong leadership and our talented team of technologists there is no limit to what Stocksy can accomplish," said Richard Brown, Stocksy's new CTO.

As part of Wettlaufer's first duties, she presented 20 awards to photographers in Stocksy's first Annual Awards, celebrating one year of photographic excellence on the site.

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